I finally got my 2018 S560 order delivered to me on 04/20. And finally got to drive it this past Saturday, which is so far so good. One major thing I noticed the lack of as I was going through the painful process of waiting from order to delivery is other folks' documentation on how long it took for them to go from one state in Netstar to another. This left me, as a first timer (only did BMWs before), pretty much in the dark. Hoping that it may actually help some other first timers, I have documented the different states in my order below. The order was place on 12/03/2017, and it took abit to go into production mainly because of the Head-Up Display option, which I am glad I waited for. Well it is what it is, let me know if you have any questions.

Z6 Accessory Update 12/13/2017
Z2 P.O. Updated 12/20/2017
A4 FINAL SUPPLIER ORDER/SCHEDULED NOT PRODUCED N/A
A19 something went horribly wrong, and the car is on an extensive road test as it failed some tests N/A
B0 19 DAYS TO PRODUCTION 1/15/2018
B1 13 DAYS TO PRODUCTION 1/23/2018
B3 NO CHANGES POSSIBLE - 10 days to completion 1/31/2018
B4 2 DAYS TO COMPLETION - assigned a VIN 2/19/2018
B5 PRODUCTION COMPLETE 3/1/2018 (assigned 3/2 originally)
B6 Car has left the factory 3/1/2018
B7 AT PORT/READY TO BE SHIPPED 3/3/2018
B8 ASSIGNED TO SHIP 3/8/2018
C1 SHIP DEPARTED N/A
C2 SHIP NOTIFICATION/ON WATER 3/13/2018
CS SUBMITTED TO CUSTOMS N/A
C3 CLEARED CUSTOMS 4/10/2018
C4 AT PORT 4/9/2018
D1 VPC RECEIVED 4/10/2018
D2 SURVEYED AT VPC 4/10/2018
D3 POTENTIAL DELAY N/A
D4 READY TO DELIVER 4/10/2018
D41 LABEL PRINTED 4/10/2018
D5 RELEASED TO CARRIER (truck) 4/10/2018

 

That's very helpful, and reminiscent of my experience with my 2015 S550 Coupe. I'm currently awaiting delivery of my 2018 S560 Sedan. It has been at the port in Germany since 4/18. It was assigned to a ship on 4/27. That's the last info I have. I guess I can expect to get the car in early June (I'm in California, so shipping may take an extra few days).

 

Call your dealer and ask them what ship your car is assigned to. You can mostly track the progress of the car boat through programs like MarineTraffic.
This works well for those of us who are anxious/obsessive.

 

I should note that I too am on the West Coast. The ship that my car was on departed Bremerhaven on March 10, and docked at Long Beach on April 9th. So roughly 30 days of a journey through the Panama Canal. The rest was VPC, wait in VPC, and trucking to Oregon...

And yes, your dealer should be able to help out through their Netstar information as to which ship the vehicle is assigned to. They usually have this update available to them couple days after the ship leaves port though...And then marinetraffic website it is...

 

Post pictures too!

 

Good point. I do not have good pictures of it yet, other than iPhone ones taken in a cramped garage...

 

Nice car , nice color
Happy Driving

 

I got the ship assignment for my 2018 S560. But the MarineTraffic app is virtually worthless, and the website isn't much better. Info is stale -- two days out of date. Extremely clumsy and difficult to use, too. Ship left port on April 30, and on May 1 was in the Celtic Sea. That's the last known position.

 

Based on your timetable, I can't expect delivery until early June. Bummer. The marinetraffic app is virtually worthless, and the website isn't much better. No new info on my ship's position in two days.

 

Beautiful car! I almost went with those wheels -- very tempting -- but at the last minute switched to the multispoke. What color wood trim did you get?

 

Marine traffic site tracks the position of the vessels through proximity of the vessel to certain points (on the land, or on the sea, some time tugboats), or through satellite (you have to pay premium). Since I also did not pay the premium, there were some dark spots as you indicated. They disappear once the ship gets close to State side, and follows the path it does through the Panama Canal, and then towards California. Sounds like you know the name of the ship your vehicle is on, which means you should be able to obtain the timetable through the company's website. My ship was Amethyst Ace, and I could check it through the www.molroro.com website. They kept it up to date as the ship ran late as well. Sounds like early June would be in your cards in this case.

Wheels turned out to be good, much easier to take care of. I was scared until I got the delivery, because as per the MY2019 DOG, these wheels had different size tires that they would be coming with, compared to the default option. But that did not make any sense to me, so I kept thinking it was a typo in the DOG, and it turned out to be the case, as they have the same tire sizes with the default one. Multispoke looks better on this car in my opinion, but it is nearly impossible to keep it clean. With only a bit over 100 miles on the car, I have a lot brake dust on it already...

I got the burl walnut trim. Here is my build sheet. I do not know what some of the items below are, as they are not all "options". For instance Mid Package., and why the default option Burmester sound system is listed there (it is not 3D).

775 Iridium Silver Metallic
501 Black Exclusive Nappa
H29 High Gloss Burl Walnut Light
L2D Wood/Leather Steering Wheel
P01 Premium Package
P34 Exclusive Upholstery
R02 All-Season Tires
R17 19" Twin 5-Spoke Wheels
141 Mid Package
325 Rear Seat Package
326 PRE-SAFE Rear Seat Package
397 Executive Rear Seat Package
398 MAGIC SKY CONTROL
445 Warmth & Comfort Package
463 Head-Up Display
61U Black DINAMICA Headliner
610 Night View Assist PLUS
735 Exclusive Trim Package
810 Burmester Surround Sound System
864 Rear Seat Entertainment Package
997 Driver Assistance Package

 

 

I most certainly do, and I am only quarter way through the manual in learning the new and cool stuff... I wish I could spend more time with it.

On the flip side, the Iridium silver seems to be getting dirty faster than I thought...

 

 

my black car shows EVERY spec of dirt. crazy. i never had a black car before. i will say the lines on the 550 are great and i think the black makes the car pop but oh geez, ever bit of pollen, etc. - or rain residue.
next car - not black.
i was worried about this with a white car, and amazingly, my pure white car in the past to me didn't show dirt.
i was thinking of iridium silver, which to me is a "classic" benz color - i'd imagine that would camouflage dirt. i was also on the fence with the ruby black (probably same issues as the black) or the dark green - and since both look largely black to me, i imagine they'll show dirt as well.
good to have first world problems!

 

Oh, I have learned my lesson on a dark (not even black) car before. That was not an option for me. The space gray BMW F10 I am coming off of however, was not this bad. It was more uniform, and it hid the dirt well. When I washed it before I sold, it turned out to be a completely different color, which first surprised me, and then I realized I had not washed it for 4 months . But it did not bother me you know? This one, somehow bothers me, which I attribute to the different color and shine...

But as someone else said in this forum somewhere, there is no car that is better looking than a black S-class during the first half hour after it is nicely washed and detailed...

 

You folks are worrying me now about the color I chose (selenite gray) for my 2019 S450 I ordered. I presently have a 2014 iridium silver S550. I had a very tough time deciding on the color this time and thought I would order something different. I doubt it's too late to change the color if I want to. What do you guys think?

 

i imagine gray will be fine. i think the darker the car, the more it will be either a mirror - or show dirt. i forgot which color whetherr the iridum silver (i think) or the grey - i came close to ordering that for an E400.

 

I think Selenite will be marginally better than Iridium on hiding dirt. I am basing that on Selenite being closer to the space grey I had on my F10, relative to iridium, nothing else.

I went back and forth between selenite and iridium (and one more silver variant that I forget now,. diamond silver may be?), and my wife and the sales lady formed an alliance for iridium, which I was muted on . Same thing for the wheels (thankfully nothing else ).

 

any chance you can teach me how to mute my wife?

 

Let me save you some time. It is an NP-complete problem. In other words, spend your time and effort on something else .

At the same time (December-ish) I also had ordered a Portofino, to be delivered in August, this time without her knowledge. And she somehow found out (and I think I know why), and now we are going through the motions of it, with me knowing there is no winning in the end... So I most likely will have to kiss that one goodbye...

 

Nice car, like the rims.

Also we owned an F10 (550i) in the past but sold due the inherent issues of the N64 v-8.

 

Thank you. I sold my F10 550i due to anticipated issues. It had absolutely no issues within the 7.5 years of ownership. Some of it probably is attributed to low miles, had 35K when I sold it. Especially the N63-V8, before or after the CCP, it was perfectly fine with effortless acceleration and all. I can only compare this one to it in the second half of June once it is properly broken in. What color was your F10?

 

We did ED in June '13

 

Looks great with the M-Sport package. Mine was an early 2011 (built Oct 2010), where there was no M-sport package offered at the time of order. Just the sport package...